Our Patriots Day review. The film hits UK cinemas on February 23rd.
Patriots Day review by Paul Heath, February 2017.
Mark Wahlberg re-teams with Peter Berg for their third film together, and indeed their second to be released in the last six months. It is also their third film to be focussed on real-life events. After tackling the Taliban and indeed survival in the 2013 action drama Lone Survivor, and then the Deepwater Horizon disaster back in September, the duo focus their attention on the events leading up to and following the Boston marathon bombings from three years ago.
Patriots Day homes in on Mark Wahlberg’s city cop Tommy Saunders, a detective assigned to the finish line of the marathon event on that fateful April day in the spring of 2013. Directly impacted by the initial bombing, Saunders was also amongst the team who pursued the suspects following the attack, but of course the character is based not on one man, but multiple key Boston Police officers on duty on that day. We have FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers (Kevin Bacon) and Commissioner Ed Davis (John Goodman), two non-fiction figures who are amongst the other investigators in this thrilling race against the clock to hunt down the suspects of the bombing and bring them to justice.
From the outset, Peter Berg’s impressive true story is violent and as tense as anything you’ll see on screen this year. Some may say that it is far too soon to bring a film of this magnitude to screens, with people still very much affected by this horrid event, but when it is handled with as much care, and with as much attention to detail as this, it’s easy to argue against those claims. Berg is gradually shying away from his popcorn-fuelled earlier work (we won’t mention Battleship), and crafting some utterly absorbing cinema. This is up there in terms of quality as his first Wahlberg collaboration, and is a grandly unrelenting, though delicately-told thriller of a film that really stays with you long after the credits roll.
Wahlberg is undeniably one of Hollywood’s most rock-solid performers, and one who can turn a drab action movie into something worth watching. Here he ups his game as Saunders, a role which he clearly savours. Saunders, a fictional character influences by multiple real-life officers, is obviously pivotal to this story, but with so many other characters, all of whom are given ample scree –time, it would be easy for proceedings to appear all over the place, but Berg’s screenplay construction and methodical direction allow Wahlberg’s character to act as the glue that binds it all together, and thankfully his presence never feel like a plot-device to mould the story in an unnatural way. A big stand-out in the film is J.K. Simmons’ Sergeant Jeffrey Pugliese who is introduced late on in. Pugliese was involved in the capture of the suspects and advised on the film, and Simmons’ performance is absolutely superb and a joy to way.
Patriots Day is undeniably mesmerising all the way through, and it will have you glued to the screen throughout. The film features some of the most mesmerising and gripping scenes that will genuinely take your breath away, and Berg’s direction is unrelentingly realistic, though equally insightful and respectful.
A true stand-out and an absolute must-see.
Patriots Day review by Paul Heath, February 2017.
Patriots Day is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 23rd February 2017.
